Precision flying

Birds initially have trouble flying in enclosed spaces, but our cockatiels have had plenty of practice, and do a little acrobatics show every morning, usually about 10 mins after they get up. Here they are, seeing how close they can fly to the wall without crashing.

Here's Pete, showing off his full set of feathers:
Here's Tom, who's moulting so is missing a few feathers:
In this one, it looks like he's got a bit too close to the wall, and is pulling up hard to avoid it!
And finally, the two of them together (yes, they do sometimes crash into each other, but never very hard):

Mike

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Sean and Sarah's wood

Yesterday we went to visit our friends Sean and Sarah in their wood in West Sussex, about 60 miles from us. It's a very different wood from ours, mostly hazel coppice with dense oak standards and self-seeded ash.They've done some coppicing but haven't started thinning the standards yet, though they've been talking to the Forestry Commission to get advice on this.

Their woodland has much more clay than ours, and is a lot wetter. As a result there are many more flowers, including orchids:
violets:and primroses:
They've been making charcoal with some of the hazel they've coppiced, selling it in a local shop. Sean explained how the kilns worked
and showed us the results of the latest burn in the small kiln:There were loads of birds in their wood, and quite a bit of nest-making activity right near where we were having lunch:
They have a bird feeder up too:
which gave some great opportunities for photos of birds flying. If only the sun had been out I'd have been able to use a faster shutter and avoided the wings blurring...

Sean suggested our mystery tree might be a crab apple. This isn't something I'd considered as I'd assumed I'd have noticed the fruit. But perhaps not, so we'll keep an eye one it.

Mike

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Birds in flight

Not wild ones, but our cockatiels Pete and Tom doing their morning acrobatics. Pete's the one with the yellow face, Tom's is white.

In the first picture, you can see Tom twisting his head so he can look out of his left eye while turning left. I also find it neat that while they're banking to turn, they still hold their heads upright.
You might notice a few gaps in their wing feathers - they're moulting. We're saving all their feathers - we reckon after about 10 years we'll have enough to stuff a small cushion! ;-)

Mike

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